


Dulce Est Decorum Est

by fortescuestreacletart



Series: Bis vivit qui bene vivit. [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Female Harry Potter, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:54:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29163798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortescuestreacletart/pseuds/fortescuestreacletart
Summary: What happened to the world Iris left behind?Ron learns to cope with the loss of his best friend.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Series: Bis vivit qui bene vivit. [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140752
Comments: 8
Kudos: 138





	Dulce Est Decorum Est

**Author's Note:**

> Dulce Est Decorum Est is latin for It is Sweet It is Fitting and it is taken from a poem about WWI. The whole quote is "dulce set decorum est pro patria mori" it is sweet it is fitting to die for ones country. 
> 
> This is a drabble on Ron's reaction to Iris dying in the forest when she travels back to another timeline. I also wanted to remind people that Minerva McG is a bad ass.

**Dulce Est Decorum Est.**

“IRIS POTTER IS DEAD,” the words cut through Ron like a knife. For a second he’s eleven again, meeting the Girl Who Lived on the Hogwarts Express, awed that she wants to be his friend. Hermione’s anguished scream brings him back to the present and they rush out of the Great Hall with the other fighters.

He sees her, the red hair distinct against Hagrid’s coat. “Another redhead,” his mum had said when he was twelve, “she was made to be a Weasley.” And like that, Molly Weasley had taken in another child. Ron ached at the look of awe on his best friend’s features during her first trip to his home. Voldemort is talking now. Telling them that the war is over, to give up the fight. Ron shouts something. He can’t remember what.

Suddenly, Neville, quiet, unassuming Neville, who at some point when Ron was away, grew up, kills Voldemort’s snake. Hermione squeezes Ron’s hand and he knows what she’s thinking. Last one down. He is mortal now.

The fighting has started again and there is no time to think. Ron is praying that nothing happens to Hermione, to his family. All he can think is _‘I can’t loose them too.’_ He is dueling Dolohov when the killing curse misses Ginny and Hermione by inches. Ron watches, awed, as his mother, the housewife, eviscerates Bellatrix Lestrange.

Voldemort turns to Ron’s mum and cold fear strikes in his gut. Ron looks on, unable to do anything as Voldemort’s _Crucio_ hits his mother’s chest. Her screams join the symphony of Hermione’s from Malfoy Mannor that Ron doesn’t think he’ll ever stop hearing. Then, quite suddenly, it's over. Professor McGonagall is standing over Voldemort’s dead body, looking shocked. Ron turns to joke with Iris that he always knew they shouldn’t cross their Head of House. Then, he remembers.

*

Later, McGonagall finds him and Hermione huddled next to his family in the Great Hall. Iris’ body has been moved somewhere. They haven’t asked where but Fred is here. Lupin too…and Tonks. She motions for them to follow her through the castle and they make their way to Dumbledore’s office. For, in Ron’s mind, it will always be Dumbledore’s office.

“There’s something I thought the two of you ought to see,” McGonagall’s generally brisk tones are softer and Ron finds it hard to believe that this woman killed a Dark Lord only hours earlier.

She gestures at the pensive on Dumbledore’s desk and Hermione makes a strangled sound before burying her head in Ron’s shoulder. Ron understands, they are about to see the memories that led Iris into the Forbidden Forest. On any other day Ron might rage about what that slimy git, Snape, could have had to say that led Iris to her death. Today, he simply turns to hold Hermione.

He and Hermione travel into the pensive alone. McGonagall said she’d already seen them, not quite meeting Ron’s eye. Ron watches as Snape first builds and then breaks his friendship with Iris’ mum. He watches Dumbledore plotting his own death. Finally, he sees the old man tell Snape that Iris was a Horcrux. Hermione draws in a tiny breath and releases a small, “Oh,” crushing Ron’s fingers. Ron realizes he hates Dumbledore. The man who made his best friend feel so disposable.

*

They come back from Australia. Hermione is going back to Hogwarts, for Iris, she says. Ron is becoming an Auror, for Iris, he says. They are dating for real now. Not just stolen moments in the corners of the tent while avoiding Iris’ knowing gaze. Hermione thinks the distance will be hard. She’s been fretting for weeks. Ron knows she shouldn’t worry; they will stay together. Who else could they date? Who could understand the empty places she left inside of them?

The year is busy. Ron watches as the people around him pick up their lives again. The Auror training program is busy. Many of his classmates are former DA members. They smile knowingly at him, talk about how good of a teacher she was, how inspiring, how she would be here fighting the good fight. He wants to scream. They don’t understand her, they never understood her. “She wanted to be NORMAL,” He yells when Percy says something about a post-humorous Order of Merlin. When Hermione comes home for break, she smiles sadly and says Hogwarts is the same.

*

Hermione graduates Hogwarts with the top NEWT scores in ten years. Ron barely scrapes through the Auror training course. He is partnered with Neville. At least, he never asks Ron about his _adventures_ with the Girl Who Lived. Hermione shelves her plans for reforming the Department for the Control of Magical Creatures and goes into child advocacy. Ron doesn’t need to ask why. He can still remember the bars on Iris’ windows.

Ron moves out of his parents’ house and they buy a flat together in Muggle London. It’s bright, airy and close to Hermione’s parents. Ron is wealthy for the first time in his life. Iris left the entirety of the Potter fortune to him and Hermione in a will she’d given to the twins. Sometimes, Ron thinks about standing in front of the Mirror of Erised at eleven and feels sick at what he saw. He’d give away all the gold and glory for one more minute with his friend.

*

The years pass. Ron’s brothers get married. Bill has his first child. Ginny starts dating Zabini, the prat. George has even started making jokes without looking pained afterward. Hermione is gaining accolades as she reforms the Wizarding World’s child welfare system. Ron and Neville are even recognized for capturing Rodolphus Lestrange. The world is moving on. They are not as instantly recognizable anymore. Ron can go days without hearing his name tied to Iris Potter. He isn’t sure that’s better.

*

They are with Teddy when it happens. He and Hermione had become the little boy’s de facto godparents after Iris—. It comes naturally to them. Sometimes, he remembers all the shared looks and quiet conferences about her and thinks they’ve been parents for years.

“Should we get married?” Hermione asks, because she isn’t the type of woman to leave things to chance.

Ron looks down at Teddy, whose hair is Weasley red and eyes are Hermione’s exact shade of brown, and says, “Yeah. I reckon we should.”

Ron buys a ring and tries not to think that they’re moving on without her.

*

They get married at a Muggle church for Hermione’s parents. McGonagall, who is now the Woman Who Conquored, is officiating. Ron wears an iris in his buttonhole and Hermione has one in her hair. As he dances with his new wife, he remembers to be happy.

*

They sell Grimmauld Place. “She hated it. Sirius was never happy here.” Ron reminds Hermione. They are going through the house sorting everything into boxes when he finds Hermione crying over a photograph in Sirius’ old room. In the photograph, Iris is a baby, zooming around on a toy broomstick.

Ron holds her until she finally gasps, “I’m pregnant.” He feels his stomach give way. They are young but he loves this woman so much and they are ready. He tells her so. They both clutch the photo of their friend and remember another young couple that loved their child as much.

Ron quits the Aurors. Parents shouldn’t leave their kids. His job was too dangerous, he is not going to risk watching his child grow up. He joins George at Weasley Wizard Wheezes and Hermione grows fat. Not that he tells her. They spend the next nine months bickering, about baby names, about her cravings, about getting the house ready. It feels good to argue with Hermione over small things again. It's what they do.

*

Hermione screams into labour at ten at night on a Tuesday. After hours of pushing and several broken fingers, Ron has a daughter. Once they are alone, he sits on the bed next to his wife and they stare in awe at their little girl. She still doesn’t have a name.

It's Hermione who asks the obvious question, they’ve been avoiding for months, “Should we?” She gently caresses the very bald head of the most beautiful creature in the world.

“Naah,” Ron replies. “She’d hate it.”

“Right,” Hermione says, looking relieved. A few minutes later, she muses, “What about a flower?”

Ron glances around for inspiration. He’s always been shite at Herbology. Finally, a flower comes to him. “Rose,” he says.

“Rose,” Hermione repeats. “Rose Weasley. It's perfect.” She places a kiss on their daughter’s small forehead. Ron looks at them, his wife and child, and feels something slide into the empty place inside of him.

No one asks why Rose Weasley is welcomed into the world by bouquets of irises.


End file.
